Question:

Who wrote Gilgamesh?

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Does anybody know who really wrote the epic story Gilgamesh?

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  1. THE ANCIENT SUMERS


  2. the ancient sumerians

  3. Seldom do myths have any original authors.  Even Homer, who wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey, only wrote down the myths and legends which most likely had hundreds of varients across the culture of the time.  It's impossible to know who wrote down the epic, because there's no sure fire way to determine if the extant copies of the epic poem were the first, let alone did anyone write down their name.  A similar case in point is the biblical story in Genesis.  The story wasn't written down somewhere between 1200 BC and 200 BC, but was handed down orally for generations.  Myths also have the habit of creating a snowball effect: it starts off small, then grows and grows, changing with a changing culture, leaving behind a myth that only hints at the cultures of preceding generations.  The most specific answer I could give you would be someone of the priest class in ancient Sumeria.

  4. According to the beginning and end of the epic, Gilgamesh wrote it himself (on clay tablets)..  That's probably about as likely as some of the incidents recounted in the epic.  Then there are many versions of the story, in various Middle Eastern languages.  I don't even know whether anyone has worked out which of them is a retelling of which, or whether the original version still exists, so I doubt that we'll ever know the name of the original author.
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